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New York Magazine Spring Fashion Edition

Two interesting contents on the New York Magazine, February 25th issue created a buzz everywhere. The first one is the photo series of Lindsay Lohan portraying Marilyn Monroe, and the second is “The Anti Anna” article with Carine Roitfeld, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris.

As some of you have already heard in the news, Lindsay Lohan re-created the last nude photo shoot of Marilyn Monroe in the Last Sitting. The Last Sitting is a photo series of Monroe shot by photographer, Bert Stern in 1962 at the Bel-Air Hotel. Six weeks after the shoot, Monroe was found dead of an overdose. The photos became one of the most iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe, which have inspired a thousand of other fashion stories. (Remember the GUESS ad campaigns in the late 90s? I personally think some of them have that Monroe-esque vibe especially the ones featuring Eva Herzigova, Drew Barrymore and the late Anna Nicole Smith).

Pros and cons are still speculating whether Ms. Lohan deserves the honor to reincarnate one of the most prominent pop culture icon in our history. According to Bert Stern, the photographer who also shot the photo series of Lohan, he was interested in Lohan because he suspected that “she had a lot more depth to her” than one might assume from “those teenage movies.” Stern shot the photos using traditional films instead of digital. Regardless of Miss Lilo as the subject of the story, the photos beautifully captured Stern powerful images. I’m just wondering all the efforts to cover Lindsay’s freckles with makeup, lighting, and probably editing them with Photoshop… quite a work well done, her freckles were gone for a while Find out more about the photos, here.

Behind the scene photos, courtesy of nymag.com

Another interesting content in the magazine is a personal favorite, “the Anti Anna” article of Carine Roitfeld, in which she proudly differs herself from Anna Wintour, her nemesis at American Vogue. Speaking of Anna, whom Roitfeld paid an homage to her look through French Vogue pages last year, she said “ Anna becomes so iconic that she becomes like a puppet. I don’t want to be like that, I don’t want to wear this uniform, I don’t want to be just an envelope.” Don’t you all wonder what Ms. Wintour would say in her mind about Carine’s comments ?

Carine Roitfeld, photographed by Hedi Slimane, courtesy of nymag.com

I found the article quite controversial, portraying Roitfeld’s point of views of the recent smoking ban in France, Carla Bruni, as the new first lady of France, and mostly the American fashion publishing. She found American editors afraid of taking risks and religiously follow fashion trend. To her, American editors are wearing the total look of Prada, compared to what she loves to wear, a mix of Japanese piece with a bit of classic, and no Jeans. It’s not a secret that it is quite rare to see Ms. Roitfeld in jeans! She also added, “I love the combination of a masculine piece with a feminine piece. It’s very French, it’s very sexy. It’s my culture. It’s the way I was raised.” And she definitely despises the sense of comfort fashion. She said, “I do not like comfortable”. She has “banned” sneakers and what she calls “Hugg boots” (Ugg boots) in her office because “they are hugly.”

That reminds me of JVB, one of Ms. Roitfeld former assistant who is now the French Vogue New York Contributor whom I used to assist in the past for a couple of styling projects. JVB seems to be living up to Carine’s standard. She would always wear heels everywhere no matter what, and everyone seems to be impressed of her ability in wearing those killer stilettos while shooting on location. Picture this : we were shooting in an outdoor location, most of us would definitely wear comfort footwear, let them be sneakers or flip flops but JVB would still be wearing her Louboutins climbing up the rocky hills and walking on the sandy beach. I asked her why she’d always insist on wearing them? She simply said “I’m wearing heels because I make my models wearing them on the shoot, so I would suffer with my models as well.” Fair enough, I must say.

Surprisingly Carine never expected the title she’s holding today as an editor-in-chief, “My best quality is to be stylist. I never think about this career, this big job,” she says. “I never wanted to be what I am today, and I will not die in the position.” She still styles most of the fashion pages of her magazine which is quite rare for any editor-in-chiefs of her caliber. French Vogue mostly uses models instead of celebrities on their covers, as Carine always tries to emphasize on the true aspect of fashion instead of just to please advertisers. She then added, “Right now I think that fashion in the world becomes a bit boring. There is so much money, and I feel a bit when you go to shows they want to sell so many handbags, and for me, well, I do not like handbags. I do not wear handbags. It is not a nice look, to carry a handbag.”

Another interesting fact in the article is the existence of a scale in her Vogue Paris office that created rumors. Fighting back, she revealed, “ So, people always say that I weigh my staff, and it is totally wrong. People always say that I weigh them, but no. I don’t weigh my girls.”

Carine is definitely proud of her French Vogue girls (her team at French Vogue, from editors to assistants). She keeps on praising them, “All my girls are very skinny and very chic and very beautiful. And if they are not beautiful, well, then they are very charming. I told you, all the girl who work at French Vogue are ‘vewy’ skinny and beautiful.” Ironically everyone in the industry seems to be obsessed with Carine’s girls at Vogue Paris (Emmanuelle Alt, Marie-Amélie Sauvé, Mélanie Huynh, Geraldine Saglio, among others). They’re my daily dose whenever I look for styling inspirations (my faves are Huynh, Alt, and Anastasia Barbieri ;D), they’re the epitome of chic Parisian girls, they even have their own cult followers at The Fashion Spot forum, and they frequently appear on The Sartorialist through Scott Schuman‘s lenses. Read the full article of “The Anti Anna“, here.

Some of Vogue Paris girls, courtesy of the Fashion Spot forum and the Sartorialist, (from left to right: Mélanie Huynh, CR, JVB, Huynh again, Emanuelle Alt)

BDJ : hehe.. oh well, i think she portrays most of the ppl in this crazy industry.. not saying everyone is like her but like it or not, physical appearance plays most part of it, unfortunately..
that’s why immm so over magzz.. too many drama queens (male & female alike ;D), so artificial.. but somehow ADDICTIVE hehe
but i still like CR no matter what kind of attitude she’s giving us, seeing her works and reading stuffs abt her are my very own guilty pleasure

Read the whole article, that lady is to my sense
1. arrogant
2. narcissist (the ‘only’ piece of decoration in her office being ‘herself’),
3. empiric (this and that banned in her office)
4. snobbish
5. so french, not the good way, i.e full of herself..

BUT most of all sickly obsessed with thinness and it is just so dumb to speak like this; someone who claims to be so influential should not promote anorexia!
Lot of models are ‘skinny’ yet the little meat they have on their legs is just FAT!

In short, she just sounds like what she admits to be: a neurotic junkie.

Sorry to come off that strong but she really is asking for it..

wLn: March 4, 2008 at 11:29 pm

gue baru baca full article nya… CR sounds like she lives up to the lean-and-mean stereotype of high fashion world ya, kayanya? Glamour, skinny and somewhat ignorant (at least to an extent). Very amusing article though. As for LiLo, I don’t feel she delivers the portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. Thanks DYS for posting!

Mmm… I don’t think the shoot worked, at all. The only photo worth taken (in my opinion) is the small picture located at the top right hand corner. The rest? Not good enough for me. I just think someone else can do a better job at portraying Marilyn Monroe. Maybe someone with more experience, wisdom and depth. Like ScarJo probably? Yeah, ScarJo would have done way better.

I have a mixed feeling about CR. I kinda like her, she’s edgy, smart, risk-taker, rebellious, adventurous, stylish, confident, and some kind of fashion prodigy. However, I don’t like her for provoking Anna like that. Well, if I think about it, maybe Carine is just being honest. Whereas Anna, she is always uptight and a “by the book” kind of person. Perhaps I like Carine better than Anna because she is a very free-spirited person who’s not afraid to do what she wants (she admits to using drugs). Not that I support that, but for me, there’s smth cool about not being that obedient. Elle est tres chic!